Ten Minutes to Kill
by Tensleep
Summary: Lunch time - Two-Bit's favorite time of the day, even if Pony's determined to work through it. Written for the December 2008 WSOTT Rumble.


I am finally getting around to posting my WSOTT rumble entries from this past year. This was the December '08 contribution. The prompt was "When you wish upon a Star" where you were to write about a goal or dream one of the boys had once upon a time. Mine, as usual, was round about ;). Bear with me, I can't remember if this one got Zickachik's beta'd stamp of approval or not. So, potentially un-beta'd, but most likely beta'd.

Disclaimer: The usual.

Ten Minutes to Kill  
By Tensleep

You know, on the days when you can just wander around town, you see some mighty interesting things. For instance, there's this strange occurrence where at noon it looks like everyone stops working. I think that's my favorite time of the day. Lunch is one of those very important meals, you know. Right after second breakfast and before snack. It also meant that people who actually worked for a living, like my friends, all could take a few minutes to talk to me without worrying about silly things like bosses and keeping their jobs and the like. I thought about getting a job at one point, just to fit in, but that would just ruin my rep.

So it was after doing a whole morning of nothing that I decided to break for lunch like everyone else and wander into the Pickett Variety Store. Now, this store was always one of my favourite places to lift things from until Ponyboy Curtis went and did something awful and got a job there. That didn't mean I didn't take things still, it just meant I didn't do it while Pony was working so there was plausible deniability. Perry Mason used that excuse last week on this episode with a cute blonde, so I kinda remembered it. Anyways, for reasons I didn't get, that job was important to him, Pony not Perry, and he wanted to keep it. I thought Darry and Sodapop worked enough for all three of them and this whole job business left me with no one to bum around with on these hot summer days. This summer was really turning into one big yawn. There was no action around here with Tim in the slammer and everyone else working. But I wasn't about to let it get me down. So I put a bright smile on my face as I wandered into the back room and spied my favourite person taking inventory on a two-step ladder, not that he needed it. I was willing to bet he could have seen the back of the top shelf if he stood on the tips of his toes. He was pretty funny looking in that smock with that serious look on his face. I'd joked about it before, but our little boy was growing up.

"Hey Kid."

Pony glanced up from where he was ticking off things on his clip board with a small smile.

"Hey Two-Bit."

"Come on down from there, Jolly Green, and we'll get something to eat."

Pony scowled at his new nickname. He had sprouted up a couple inches in this past year so he was eye to eye with Darry, but missing all the muscle that made the man intimidating. He looked like a giraffe with all the grace of four left feet. Still, all he needed was to start tending vegetables and he would be the Jolly Green Giant. I smirked at the thought. Knowing the kid like I did, he was going to do so much more than tend vegetables for a living. He was barely seventeen, graduated, working the summer before he hit College, you know, one of those driven people you hear so much about. As it was, he would be gone in another month so he could make something of himself. That meant I had to get all my teasing until Christmas in before he took off for the far off land of Academia. I wasn't sure where that was, but Soda got a kick out of saying "the land of Academia" so hopefully one of us knew what the other was talking about. If not, it was funny anyway.

"It's not my lunch break yet," he replied, climbing down from the ladder and towering over me.

"The rest of this town is eating," I pointed out. "Besides, just shed some of that six foot whatever shadow over your boss and he'll let you go."

Mr. Johnson was shorter than I was. He was clearly intimidated by Pony, but Ponyboy seemed to be the only one who didn't notice it. Go figure.

"Knock it off, ok? Ten more minutes and I'll be all done with this and we can go," Pony informed me and I sighed.

Ten whole minutes of this? Was he kidding me? I mean, I suppose he did things like this all day, but it just seemed so repetitive and boring. It was too much like…well, work.

"Ok, but don't think I'm gonna help you, Stretch."

"That's ok with me." Pony gestured to where there was an upturned milk crate on the floor and I took that as my invitation to sit. "The last time you helped, I worked over time to fix everything again."

I grinned. "You should have known better."

He nodded because he knew it was the truth just as well as I did. I just wasn't cut out for this work stuff. There was a time I had considered it, but that ship had long sailed.

"You know, I thought about getting a job once," I said because the silence just didn't seem to be working for me.

"Oh yeah?" Pony hummed, still counting boxes with the eraser end of his pencil.

"Yep. I was going to be a fireman," I told him proudly.

"After you started the fires?"

"Well, look at you making jokes!" I chuckled and Ponyboy took it farther by giving me a look that said he hadn't been joking. He was getting good at this. "And for your information, Steve is the one who likes to set things on fire."

"I recall," he scowled, probably remembering last Fourth of July when he lit the picnic table on fire trying to get the barbeque hotter with a bottle of Bourbon. Good old Stevie...

"Well, he would have given me something to do, anyways. If I were a fireman, you can bet they'd let me run the siren and spray with the hose." I grinned.

"That's about all they'd let you run," Pony muttered and I laughed.

"You're channelling Steve today. He and I rode in a fire truck once, you know."

"When was that?" He asked, writing something down and moving to an even higher shelf.

"That was the year you decided Santa wasn't real."

He frowned over at me, but didn't pry. I remembered that Christmas well. Ponyboy was ten and cute. Now he was seventeen and not cute, but still clueless about when Soda, Steve and I tromped all over the roof that Christmas night. We got stuck up there and Mrs. C called a friend who brought a fire truck and the ride home had brought to life all the dreams of a five year old me. Of course, they hadn't run the siren and I was disappointed, but the thrill of being in the truck made up for it. I'd wanted to be a fireman more than anything when I was a precocious little boy – and those were the exact words my mother liked to use when she let her memory wander. Heck, it was the only job I ever wanted to have. I thought about pursuing it when I was older, but by then, I was old and jaded and too lazy.

"Gosh, I must have been about six or seven when Bobby Schumacher told me Greaser kids couldn't be firemen," I mused. "I socked him in the nose for that and then the teacher screeched at me and told me I was never going to amount to anything. Well, I showed her. Look at me now."

Ponyboy raised an eyebrow, something I taught him, and went back to writing things. Gosh, how long had it been since he said ten minutes? It had to be at least seven. Maybe even fifteen. All I knew was he had five more minutes before I started eating things. There was a bin of penny candies out there with my name on it. I could feel the belly ache that would give me already and sighed to myself. Ok, maybe I could wait for a burger or something over at the Dingo.

"You know, I might become a fireman someday. The girls go for firemen." I smiled. "And they get lots of time off, lots of poker games, lots of time just sitting on their butts waiting for a fire, and a dog. I could enjoy a dog. You could take care of it for me."

Pony nodded and I grinned. He was too easy.

"Alright. I'm done," the kid announced, setting the clipboard down on the desk in the back.

"Great. Lunch is on me!" I announced in return. "Hey, speaking of which, can I bum a couple bucks? My wallet's a little light after date night. Darla and I ended up over at that new dance place on the Ribbon and there was a cover charge – if you can believe that. I wouldn'ta paid, but the look she gave me promised she'd pay me back later, and boy she did – with interest."

Ponyboy had that blush going. He only ever did that when I told him about a particularly good time I'd had. I smiled. No matter how old, or tall, he got, I was going to always be able to make him blush.

"How about we just say lunch is on me, ok?" He sighed and I grinned.

"Well, if you insist."

"Just no more stories, ok?"

I laughed. "Just as long as I never have to watch you work again. That was the longest ten minutes of my life."

"It only took me six," Pony replied.

"Six of one, half a dozen of the other," I shrugged. "Either way, it took too damn long."

"Yeah, a whole story's worth. I never knew you wanted to be a fireman," he mused. "That would be something to see."

"Let's head on over to the DX. Maybe Stevie will light something on fire for us and I'll show you exactly what it means to be a fireman."

Ponyboy just sighed and ushered me out the door. Like I said, this whole lunch thing was my favourite part of the day.

* * *

Wow. I don't even remember writing that it was so long ago. I definitely need a better memory. Where's Doc Frankenstein when you need him?

Any comments at all are welcome and flames accepted.

See ya in the funny papers!!!

Tens & Zickachik


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